Memories and Madness
by Sweet Irony
Summary: Unknowingly left on a parallel world, Rose's life is flipped upside down she comes face to face with her dreams. Family and friends alike called her mad, but she knew, deep down, her dreams were real. He was real. He is real.
1. Prologue

Memories and Madness  
By: Sweet Irony (Kimberly)  
Rated: T (may change)

_Prologue_

_Outside of Cardiff, Parallel Universe _

_May 25, 2011_

As a warm breeze hit the face of a young woman in her twenties, she sighed contentedly. Her blonde hair blew easily around her peach face, her gray-brown eyes closed as the wind brought a smile to her face. In her mind, images danced in a mirage of distant memories, dreams she couldn't quite place.

"Rose!" Jackie called her daughter from the back doorway of a small red-brick house. Rose, sitting on a stool in the garden among her namesake, jolted from her meditation at her mother's voice and turned to the older blonde. "Come inside, darling. It's getting cold outside, and Grace is starting to fret."

"Jus' a moment, Mum," she replied with a sigh- this time out of frustration. She loved her mum, she really did, but there was only so much of her one could take at a time. It was a wonder her father was still around for all the screeching that could be heard from a mile away. Then again, Jackie never did seem to be a quite one, whether as a mother or a wife.

Turning back to the garden, Rose closed her eyes as she heard her mother huff and close the door behind her, causing a smile to pass over Rose's face. Behind her lids, a whole different world awaited, so real and yet so strange. Images of a little blue box she called a "TARDIS," with an immense interior, wafted through her senses. There, she met a man by the name of "Doctor."

Strange name, that was. Doctor. Not Doctor Smith or Doctor Claude or Doctor Henry, like her own doctors. No. Just the Doctor. He seemed to lack any other name, and he responded to "Doctor" when she called out to him in her dreams, as if he were a real man. As if he weren't simply a figment of her imagination, as her family and doctors insisted he was.

Figment or not, he was hers. He was her Doctor, and she loved him and her adventures with him. Whenever she closed her eyes and allowed herself the time, she imagined the most intense travels with him, through time and space. She encountered beings from other worlds- Slitheen, Sycorax, Cybermen, Dalek. With each new being came new adventures, new dangers, new excitement. Perhaps he was simply the product of an over-active imagination with months to create, but they still felt so real to her. _Bugger off,_ she'd think if Mickey told her she was too old for imaginary friends. He was her Doctor, she was his Rose. And she was happy.

"Mum!" Once again, her eyes flew open at the sudden sound, a voice emitted from a young girl, only 5 years in age. She looked down into the brilliant brown orbs and smiled, once more, at her own daughter, her own flesh and blood. With a gorgeous mop of silky brown hair that flowed to her shoulders, and a peachy face that nearly matched her own, Jade Grace Tyler- better known as Grace- grinned up at her mother in excitement. "Guess what," she demanded.

"Gran said it's time for me to come inside?" Rose asked with a raised brow.

"No, silly," Grace responded. Then, she grimaced slightly, her eyes squinting slightly. "Well, yeah, that too. But that's not what I came out to tell you!"

"What, then?" Rose asked, her south British accent ever-evident, even after months spent in a coma.

A young genius, Grace never ceased to amuse- and amaze- her mother, and this was no exception. "I found something. I wanna show you!" Grabbing her hand in her little palms, Grace led her mother off the bench, beyond the garden, and into the field next to the house. Taking care to bend down enough so her daughter could drag her correctly, Rose followed Grace with all the deliberate speed she could muster after a long day at work.

"Grace, sweetie, slow down. S'all right to let us walk, isn't it?"

"No, mummy, you'll want to see this." She led Rose beyond the field and into the woods, darting around trees and skipping over low bushes, slowing down as she reached a clearing. Pointing a stubby, nail-bitten finger at a hunk of metal, she whispered, "Look what I found!"

Climbing over the bushes and bending over a fallen tree, Rose saw what Grace had been pointing at and nearly fainted. There, beneath the brush and a full moon, sat a metal body, nearly 3 feet in height, surrounded by little metal bulbs protruding from its somewhat spherical base and two tubes sticking out from its head. Rose was looking straight into the eye of a torment from her very dreams.

"Dalek," Grace whispered urgently, excitement coursing through her veins. "He's a Dalek. Isn't he _beau'iful_?"

**Oi, there you have it. Chapter numero un. My first-ever multi-chapter fic. Since I still have school for three more weeks, it's unlikely I'll get around to updating this week or possibly the next, but I assure you I'll update soon. I know how annoying it is to read a story, want more, and never have another update from the author. Assuming of course, that you all like this story (I certainly hope so!). I love comments and critiques, though, so feel free to put your two cents in! **

**Quote of the day: "You can observe a lot just by watching."-- Yogi Berra**


	2. Golden Mist

**Chapter One: _Golden Mist_**

Most nights her bed would have been welcoming, warm, wonderful. The horrors of the day seemed to melt into nothingness once Rose Tyler lay on her bed, and her dreams of her Doctor surfaced. However, she never made it her red-covered mattress that night, and her dreams turned to nightmares as new memories assaulted her consciousness. Just mere hours earlier, her daughter had stumbled upon a Dalek, long since dead, but it wasn't just the hollow tin can that made her heart hammer and her breath catch.

The memories- yes, she was pretty positive, now, that they were real, not simply her "overactive imagination"- hit her full force as she scooped her daughter into her arms and ran as fast as her legs could carry her back to the house. In the few minutes it took for her to reach the door, Grace made no sound, not even the tiniest cry or whimper. When her feet touched the ground once again, her large eyes, slightly moist, gazed into her mothers' with a ferocious might, trying to figure out why her mother had handled her so roughly.

With quiet recognition and lugubriosity, brown pierced brown as their eyes connected, inches away. There, hidden beneath layers of fog, fear glimmered in Rose's eyes. Even at five, Grace knew this look, and with no words, she soundlessly took Rose's hand and gently pulled her into her own room, just up the stairs from the doorway.

Rose glanced faintly at her surroundings- a light blue room with glow-in-the-dark stars dancing around the ceiling- before slipping under the pale blue bedspread of her daughter's twin bed. As she squirmed a bit to get comfortable, she stole a glance at the window, the sky outside black and peaceful. She put her head to the pillow, and Grace hugged her once she had settled down. Minutes ticked by, and Rose began to content herself, allowing sleep.

"Mum?"

"Mmhm?"

"It won't hurt you, Mum. It's not alive anymore."

Rose's eyelids, which had been drooping with fatigue, shot open at this last sentence, catching the last word. "Anymore?"

"Not anymore," Grace repeated sleepily, her breathing becoming slower and easier as she drifted into dreamland. "I turned it off."

--------------------------

After an hour or so, Rose had pulled away from her daughter's sleeping form and left the room. The radio played softly from the pale green-walled kitchen downstairs, and Rose decided that a good cuppa would help her relax as her daughter's last words replayed in her head.

"_It's not alive anymore. I turned it off."_

Turned it off? If her dreams- no, memories- were correct, one couldn't simply "turn off" a Dalek. She scurried around the quaint room, grabbing a kettle from beneath the stove and filling it with water as she considered the night's occurrences. Had it really been just over an hour since she had run, breathless, from the field across the meadow? A loud whistling stole her thoughts as she was forced to return all attention to the stove, careful not to wake Grace or her parents as they slept, doors away.

Later, as her tea cooled, Rose pondered whether she had convinced herself too soon that her memories were real, or if they were simply coincidence. Her parents assured her that she had never witnessed a life as dangerous as that with her Doctor, but she couldn't help but wonder about the missing 3 years of her life. At 19, she had lived life with few complaints, a shopgirl in from the Powell Estate in Cardiff. Her boyfriend, Mickey, adored her, and her mother, Jackie, was as loud and abrasive as ever, God bless her. Then, the next thing she knew, she awoke in a brightly lit hospital, hooked up to tubes and screaming for her mother.

From that time on, she had come to know her life. Her father had somehow miraculously returned from the dead, married once again to her mother; Mickey had lost his spunk and ever-happy personality, replaced by a brooding, cautious man; and she had a daughter.

Funny, it was. She couldn't remember giving birth to her child, and her parents claimed they hadn't known anything about the birth until she awoke from her coma. Three years were missing, and a child had been brought into the world, and no one had noticed. Without her knowledge, she had become a single mother at the age of only 21. That was four years ago, and no one had stepped forward as the father.

She had believed, a year later, that the Doctor might be the father- why else would she dream so often, and so lovingly about him? However, when she presented this to her family, they had blanched, and immediately informed her that no such man existed. She thought they seemed rather frightened by the topic, but she pushed her idea on them more. She took her dreams to her doctor, Doctor Smith, and he hesitantly told her that she was experiencing side-effects from her coma. Intense dreams, so much so that they seemed real, were to be expected, he had said. He then prescribed her some medication and sent her home.

The medication had caused her to stop dreaming, but when her daughter started talking, she asked her mother where "daddy" was, and Rose started slipping to bed at night, crying. These tortuous nights caused her to lose weight dramatically, which her daughter- and only her daughter- noticed. Months later, she forgot to take her medicine one night, and she dreamed. She dreamt of a man with two faces and a little blue box (that wasn't so little inside). She knew, somehow, this man was the same man with different appearances, and she trusted him immensely. He took her to a beautiful planet that night, with orange beaches and blue grass. There were no natives, only Rose and her Doctor, who changed his faces and his clothes constantly before her eyes, images slurred, blurred. One thing remained the same at all times.

The sky.

As Rose contemplated the endless sky and its stars that freckled it forever, her eyelids drooped, and her body slowly sagged forward over the table. She lovingly put her head over her arms, crossed in front of her on the table, and dreamed.

---------------------------

_Gold mist surrounded her as she opened the door of the TARDIS and stepped onto the platform. The entire history of all things swirled in her head, pounding, burning, horrible- and wonderful. _

"_What have you done?" The Doctor yelled to her as the mist shone brighter. She looked him square in the eye, and images of what could be flashed behind her pupils. _

"_I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me," she responded as if it were the simplest fact. The words that fled from the Doctor's mouth escaped her consciousness as a beam of deadly light shot at her. Faster than light itself, her palm lept up to catch the beam, deftly reflecting it and throwing it back at its owner, disintegrating the Dalek with ease. "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."_

_He urged her to stop, but she couldn't. The power dripped from her very being. She heard her name, and looked at him in sadness._

"_I want you safe. My Doctor." She raised her head to the fleet of Daleks, hate pouring from her eyes, heavier than the power of even the TARDIS. "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence and I divide them." She raised her hand and fixed her stare on the Dalek emperor. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies."_

**So, I lied. It turns out I did have time to write this chapter today- or, at least, I **_**made**_** time to write it. Who am I kidding? I'm not going to study for the SATs. I'll just prepare my project and be done with my homework tonight. Hopefully, another update will come in a few days, at least within a week. **

**Quote of the day: "Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent."— Frantz Fanon**


	3. Tell Me

**_I wanted to thank all those who have commented so far. I dedicate this chapter to each of you- you know who you are. Even a comment as short as a sentence boosts my ego (as precious as it is), and convinced me to keep writing. So, thank you, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter._**

**Chapter 2: **_**Tell Me**_

"Wake up, sleepy-head."

Rose slowly opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings. Instead of being shrouded in red hues, she saw only green. Pale green. Stupefied, she glanced behind her and sighed in relief as Mickey washed into view, blurry to pupils not-yet prepared for the light. _I fell asleep in the kitchen last night. That's right._

"Wha' time is it?" she wondered aloud, looking towards the oven for the clock, before remembering that it was broken.

"Quarter to eleven, already. You've been out of it all morning, even when we were all eating breakfast at this very table." Mickey grinned at her, obviously amused, and she couldn't help but laugh.

"All right, then. It's Saturday, right?" _Shoot, it's not, is it? It's Friday, I'll bet. I'm late for work!_ Instantaneously, her brain leapt to life, and she shot up from the table to run to her bedroom. "I have to get to work!"

"Relax! It's Saturday. Not Friday." Rose stopped at the doorway and turned to him.

"How-"

"I know that look, Rose. You panic too easily. You should really take it easier, you know." And there she saw it- the old familiar spark of humour in his eyes, the old Mickey shining through. "Grace is at kindergarten, and your mum jus' left to get something for lunch. She sent me here to wake you."

"Oh," Rose replied, feeling incredibly stupid. Mickey picked up the kettle she had used the previous night, and filled it with water. Rose watched, dazed, as he put the water to heat and sat down across the room from her. A comfortable silence passed between them as he picked up the paper and Rose stared off through the window to the back. It almost seemed as if the air was rippling, or shining or something.

"I saw the Doctor in my dreams again last night," Rose announced, the words spilling from her before she could give it too much thought.

She felt, rather than saw, the spark in his eyes die as a look of panic crossed his face. His eyes grew a little larger and his mouth tightened into a line as he responded, "Don't." She could feel his gaze as if it were tangible.

Rose turned away from the shimmering light outside and stared, hard, into Mickey's dark eyes. Her voice dropped dangerously low as she told him to shut up. "Mickey, stop pretending he didn't exist. You and Mum and Dad keep telling me I've just got an overactive imagination, but I see how you all react whenever I bring him up. You know him. You know he's real, or you wouldn't panic so much every time I mentioned him." She continued to stare at him as he averted her gaze, obviously uncomfortable with the conversation. "Tell me what happened."

"Rose, you can't talk about him. They'll know. They watch your every move, your every word. They're listening right now, I'm positive. You could get killed for talking about him. I could get killed." He looked back at her, emphasizing his next words: "Grace could be killed. Stop. Now."

He held her gaze for a moment before abruptly standing up and rushing to the door, his chair falling to the gray tile floor behind him. Rose followed him, and crossed in front of him at the door, having had the advantage of being standing when he tried to flee.

"I can't keep living like this, Mickey." Rose grabbed his head, a palm on each side of his face, forcing him to look her in the eye. "It's been 5 years since I woke up; 3 since I last talked about the Doctor with anyone. No one could have been following me or listening to me, or I would have noticed. But I don't know how much longer I can live like this, in the dark. I have to know what's going on. Why am I having these dreams all the time, if they're not real? Why can't I talk about it? What's so bad that you can't listen, or what's so important that 'someone' would want to watch me, anyway?" She felt the tears building up in her eyes as she stared him down. She felt stronger than ever, yet her knees seemed to turn to jelly as she repeated, one last time, in a whisper: "Tell me."

They stood like that for minutes, simply staring into one another's eyes, searching for the other's soul. Tears fell silently from Rose's eyes and her body started to tremble slightly, but she never let go of Mickey's face. She could sense his resolve was cracking, and she allowed her hands to drop from his face as she took his right hand in both of hers. "Tell me," she whispered. "Tell me why I'm missing three years of my life. Tell me why I can't talk about my dreams. Tell me why you think my daughter is in danger."

His mouth opened, but no sound came out but a strange rasp. He closed it, took a breath, and opened it once more, but never got the chance to say anything. A strange sound was coming from outside, and the air around them suddenly got thicker. It felt heavy and tense, as if someone were watching them, and it rippled a bit. _Rippling? _Rose broke eye contact with Mickey and turned to the door, wrenching it open and stepping outside.

There, in her back yard, stood a small army of about 20 Daleks, about five or six feet in height, with Grace sitting happily among them on the bench, her eyes shining with excitement as if she had just gotten the pony she asked for every year for Christmas. Her feet dangled over the bench's edge as she leaned forward towards her mother, giggling slightly. "Mum!"

Rose stood stock still, shocked- only her eyes moved, as they shifted from one end to another, and then down to Grace. "Aren't they _beau'iful_?"

**I think I should warn you all now: if you're hardcore, detail-oriented, strictly-canon fans, you might want to turn away from the story now. I only know what I've seen of the Daleks in S1 and S2 (of 2005 and 2006), and what I've read, briefly, on the internet; I might stray from canon's typical Dalek behavior. Of course, I'll try to stay as close to canon as I can, but I make no absolute guarantees (since I have limited knowledge and resources). But now you're starting to see why her parents and Mickey act the way they do when she mentions the Doctor, and you might be able to start getting ideas about how Grace could turn off the mini-Dalek in the forest last chapter. **

**If you're worried about whether or not you'll see the Doctor, you can stop. I can't say when he'll show up, but, eventually, he will. He's a huge, huge part of this story, and he's not just going to be memories forever. **

**It might be a few days before I update, it might be one (although, hopefully, the next chapter will be longer than this one). Really, it depends on my schedule. I have the SATs tomorrow morning, an entire paper to write for my Advanced Writing class, and quite a bit of extra credit for French to complete. I'm pretty certain I'll have enough time to write another chapter over the weekend, but, like I said, I make no guarantees. But, I check my email almost as often as I breathe, so if any of you have any comments, criticisms, or corrections, I can probably make any necessary changes quite early. With all that said, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

**Quote of the day: "When a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive."-- ****Alan Paton**


	4. Do As I Say

**This chapter is dedicated to my wonderful friend Mel, who has been supporting me from the very start. She was my first reader and first (and most frequent) reviewer. She compliments me constantly on this story (which I'm not entirely sure I deserve, but I love), and she's always there to motivate me to keep writing. So, Mel, this chapter's for you.**

**----------------**

**Last time: **_There, in her back yard, stood a small army of about 20 Daleks, about five or six feet in height, with Grace sitting happily among them on the bench, her eyes shining with excitement as if she had just gotten the pony she asked for every year for Christmas. Her feet dangled over the bench's edge as she leaned forward towards her mother, giggling slightly. "Mum!" _

_Rose stood stock still, shocked- only her eyes moved, as they shifted from one end to another, and then down to Grace. "Aren't they _beau'iful_?"_

-------------

**Chapter 3: **_**Do As I Say**_

"Grace, come here," Rose urgently beseeched her daughter, motioning to her side. Grace obediently hopped down from the bench, her black sandals slapping the ground as she hit it, and skipped over to her mother's side. Her brown hair, swept up into loose pigtail French braids, tickled her neck as she looked up at Rose, who instead stared, terrified, at the troops in front of them.

"_We. Are. The Daleks,_" the one in the center told her, its slow, robotic voice cold and emotionless. Its pipe with a blue light attached to it- serving as its eye- looked directly at her as Rose stood her ground. She felt the fear drain from her as a new emotion took to her veins- anger.

"Yeah, I know that," she told them, rather annoyed. "I've dreamt of you. And then there was one of you in the forest behind my house. A small one, anyway. What are you doing here? Are you-"

"_SILENCE!_" The centermost Dalek, which Rose assumed to be the leader, glided forward. Its silver body glinted menacingly in the sun, sending a light straight into Rose's eyes. Shielding her eyes with her left hand, she gently pushed Grace behind her with her right. "_You. Will. Obey._"

"And why would I do that?"

Before Rose had the chance to say anything more, a beam of light shot straight at Mickey, instantly turning him to dust. Rose screamed and tried to take a step back, nearly tripping over Grace in the process; Grace simply stared at the dust that occupied the place where Mickey once stood, her eyes large and her mouth firmly shut tight.

"_You. Will. Obey,_" the Dalek repeated, mere seconds before Rose saw a similar beam flash directly at her. Grace gripped her hand when Rose tried to push her away from the light, but the beam hit them both.

-------------------------------

Rose opened her eyes cautiously, and felt a familiar tug on her hand. Her pupils were heavily dilated, but she could see nonetheless, and she looked down to find Grace clinging to her hand for dear life. Her eyes and mouth were clamped tight, her teeth silently grinding. Sighing in relief, Rose closed her eyes and quietly prayed a thank you to whoever was listening, and opened them once again to see Grace staring at her intently, a tear escaping over her right cheek.

Holding Grace to her side, she ran slow circles over the girl's back, trying to soothe her. She glanced around them, noticing they sat in pitch black. Something dripped from the ceiling a few feet away from them and through the floor, seeping down somewhere beneath them. Her eyes slightly adjusted to the lack of light, enough that she could see some writing on the wall next to her face, either ancient or alien, as she couldn't begin to decipher the words she had never seen before.

Finally, her eyes returned to her daughter, who had buried her head in Rose's gray sweatshirt, weeping softly from freight. Rose's heart nearly stopped, seeing her daughter- usually so happy, carefree, explorative- so petrified and upset. For once in her life, she didn't know how she could help. This wasn't a scraped knee that could be kissed away, or a harmful word that could be replaced with a loving one; this wasn't a scary animal, found in the forest, that could be swept aside with a broom, nor a sad story whose ending could simply be changed. This was real, and there was nothing she could do to change it.

"Rose?"

Whipping her head around, Rose frantically scavenged the black abyss before her with her eyes, attempting to find the source of that voice. Then, she heard it again, a little louder. "Rose?"

Mickey. It was Mickey! "I'm here! We're here!" Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for his response, hugging Grace tighter to her body, cradling her head in her right palm. Something started moving slowly towards them, the sound of cloth rubbing against stone filling her ears. Suddenly, it stopped.

"Mickey!" Silence. "MICKEY!"

"Shut up! Do you want them to hear you?" Mickey's voice came out in a rasp, as if he had just been through the desert without water. "I need to find a way to get to you without killing myself in the process. Where the hell are we?"

"I don't know. I've never been anywhere like this before. The last thing I remember is that light beam." She groaned. "Oh, God, I sound like a Sci-Fi geek. 'A beam of light hit me and sent the particles of my very being into orbit on some space station.'" Rose imitated the gruff voice of a man she had heard the talking about some space theory the other day. A choked laugh came from her right.

"You think you didn't sound like it before, what with your obsession with the Doctor?"

"Are you saying he's real?"

"Shh!" Grace clapped a hand to Rose's mouth and pointed a little finger to their left, the tear tracks barely noticeable in light's absence. Rose put her head to the wall and listened intently, Rose mimicking her on her left.

A slight buzzing came from somewhere beyond the walls, in the opposite direction of Mickey's voice. Rose scooted her body- with Grace still firmly attached to her like a separate body part- toward the sound, which came from the other side of the wall that she leaned on. She pushed her ear to the wall and her body as close against it as she could, trying to distinguish the sound.

Like a mouth, the wall behind her shot open, sending Rose and Grace's bodies to the ground, their eyes plastered shut in protest to the sudden light.

"_You. Will. Stand._"

Fumbling over her own body, Rose managed to stand, clumsily. Grace never let go of her hand, making the process even more difficult. She squinted her eyes as three Daleks came forth, and two passed right by them towards Mickey.

"_Scanning brain._" A blue light came from one of the Dalek's eye pieces and run down Mickey's forehead once before analysis. "_He. Knows. Little. He. Shall. Be. ExTERMinated!_"

"NO!" Rose screamed, not noticing Grace's hand had somehow left hers. The Dalek stopped, and looked down at Grace, who had her hand on its base. Mickey stood, cringing but alive; Rose stared first at him, then focused her gaze on Grace. When had she crossed the room?

"You will leave him alone," Grace commanded, her hand still upon the Dalek's body. It ogled her for a moment, then looked back up at its comrades and glided over to them without looking back.

"_You. Females. Will. Come. He. Will. Not. Be. ExTERMinated._"

Grace walked back over to Rose, took her hand and glanced up at her. Rose was rooted to the spot in shock, staring down at her daughter with a mixture of fear and awe.

"Grace, what did you do?" she whispered, her eyes locked on those familiar brown ones. Grace simply grinned and tugged at her hand, taking it in her own and swinging their arms back and forth.

"_Obey! OBEY!_" The Daleks forced Rose and Grace into the hall and marched them down it, the doors to their previous cage closing once again, Mickey still trapped inside.

**I think this was the quickest chapter I've written yet. It just… came. I'm leaning more on Grace's character than I had previously thought I would, to tell the truth. I initially brought her in for… certain reasons to do with my plot, but somehow, while writing, I grew attached to her character. She's pretty fun to write, and I can imagine so many things revolving around her- not that it necessarily will, though, mind you. I just find myself rather enamored with her. But no worries- Rose is yet the central chacter, and she's the one we follow around.**

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It's a bit longer than my last chapter, at least, and I think my next one will be slightly longer yet. I hope I can have the chance to write it within the next few days or so, but I just found out today that I have 2 tests to study for this week, and then I have finals next week. But I'm sure updates will be coming virtually daily once I'm out of school for the summer.**

**The Doctor's coming up soon, I assure you. I just can't tell you when.**

**Quote of the Day: "Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." – William Jennings Bryan**


	5. Exterminate

**Chapter Four: **_**Exterminate**_

_Well, this is interesting_, Rose dully thought as she walked hand-in-hand with her daughter down a hallway with metallic walls and concrete floors. She looked down at the top of Grace's head and peered into the girl's eyes from above, searching for the answers she wanted so desperately. Why were they here? How could Grace control the Daleks? Why wasn't she- or Grace or Mickey- dead yet? She lost herself in her thoughts and almost didn't notice the hallway open up into a wide, open, circular space.

Like a few minutes earlier, the light hit her eyes harshly and she threw her hands before her eyes to shield herself from the onslaught. _How much brighter can this place get_?

Within seconds, her pupils had dilated enough to accommodate the light, and she opened her eyes wide at the sight that sat before her: there, in all his (her?) glory, sat a large black Dalek, straight from her dreams. Its base was covered with golden orbs, and its extra height seemed to show his rank. With a slight purr, its center pulled apart to reveal a creature within that looked almost like an octopus with a giant, lazy, angry eye.

"_Bring the human child to me_," it demanded, and Rose blinked. Did that thing just talk normally? Where were the choppy syllables and angry infliction? It had spoken almost conversationally, more like a human than a Dalek.

Something grabbed her from behind and pulled her backward as another Dalek moved toward Grace, forcing her to move forward without actually touching her. Surprisingly, she skipped forward, seemingly carefree.

"_Scanning._" The black Dalek's eyepiece moved up and down Grace's body three times before it came to a stop, appearing to be looking straight into Grace's eyes with its own lazy one. "_She is not human_," the Dalek announced.

Rose spoke before she knew what she was doing, the words flying from her mouth. "Well, of course she's human! She's my daughter!" The black Dalek looked over to Rose and seemed to contemplate her existence for a moment before quietly closing itself up and gliding over to her. Her eyes snapped from the Dalek's middle to its eyepiece, slowly backing away as it moved toward her. After stumbling over her own feet, she mustered all the strength she could, given the circumstance and her terror. "Get away from me! Leave my daughter alone!"

"_You are the key. He will come for you. The human child shall be harvested for power. And he will come_."

She stared at him in shock. Her head spun with an array of emotions: fear, anger, confusion, excitement, anticipation. "Who's coming?"

"_He will be exterminated._"

"Who?"

"_The Doctor shall be exTERminated! He will come! He will break the wall and open the void! He is coming._"

Rose felt her body go numb as she stood there, paralyzed with shock. The Doctor. The Doctor was coming. Rose opened her mouth to demand answers to her other questions, but someone else beat her.

"He won't come here," a voice said from behind the black Dalek. The eyepiece swiveled around to Grace and she took a step forward, her expression no longer carefree. Something- some emotion, dark and afraid- danced in her eyes, powerful and angry. "He can't come here. If he comes here, the universes will collide, and everything will be destroyed. He'll be making a whole in time and space; we'll all die."

A silence followed this declaration of death as every living thing, both Dalek and human, stared straight at Grace. "How would you know all that?" Rose wasn't sure whether to feel frightened or amazed. Grace, her daughter, was brilliant, sure. But how could she possibly know something like that? Or had she made it all up?

Grace gazed at Rose sadly. "Mum, I see it all. I see all that is, all that was, all that could be…"

A strong sense of déjà vu struck Rose; she had heard that before. Someone had said those very words. Grace noticed the change in her mother's eyes and continued, "I'm not human, Mum. I've known that my whole life. You never gave birth to me. I was born in a tube from a mix of genes: Human and Time Lord. Yours and 'The Doctor' as you call him. I know this because I remember it. I remember my creation; I remember growing as an embryo in a tube connected to you while you were unconscious for months, fed through other tubes; I remember my birth- they pulled me out of the tube and took the cord that connected me to you out of your stomach. I was never human, Mum. I'm not even fully Time Lord. I'm just… a lab rat."

The enormity of the situation hit Rose harder than a punch in the gut. Her eyes flooded in salt water as she continued to stare at Grace.

Grace. What a name; it fit so perfectly.

"You're not a lab rat, Grace. You're my daughter." Grace looked away from Rose, staring at the ground as tears started to pool in her own eyes.

"I'm not your daughter," Grace whispered. "I'm nobody's daughter. I'm not human! I'm not anything!"

"I don't care what you are, Grace," Rose announced, broken from her stupor, suddenly oblivious to the danger still surrounding them in silver and black metal cases. When Grace refused to look at her, she took three strides forward and knelt next to the girl, tipping her face up with a finger under her chin. "You are my daughter no matter what. Whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me. You'll always be my daughter; my Grace."

Grace's lip trembled as her eyes gushed water, and she threw her arms around Rose, wailing into her shoulder. Rose rubbed her hand in circles on Grace's back and looked up briefly when a strange noise cut through the air; what she saw made her heart stop dead.

With a final whir-clunk, a blue wooden police box materialized before her eyes, and mere seconds later, a man wearing a brown pinstripe suit and worn red trainers opened the door and stood in the frame, staring out. He didn't seem to notice Rose or Grace, but pure anger and terror flashed across his face simultaneously as he looked around at the room full of Daleks; looking up, Rose noticed for the first time what he must have seen immediately: the ceiling was ages up, and layer after layer of Daleks sat along the edges of each story in the dome. There must have been hundreds of Daleks.

"_EXTERMINATE!_"

**I'm sorry for the terrible delay, everyone, and that this chapter isn't as long as I had previously promised. I've had finals to worry about, and I had to take both the SAT and the ACT. Then, a few days ago, a friend of mine died, and I couldn't write anything that day, or the day after- it just felt so wrong.**

**As for the story, though: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Yes, the Doctor has finally arrived. He'll start taking a gigantic role starting with the next chapter. There are a whole slew of problems surrounding Grace, too. There's a lot to that little girl, more that I still have to explain. I was going to explain in this chapter why she could control the Daleks with a single touch, but I didn't quite get around to that- I got to something else, instead. I just kind of flip-flopped the order, because I realized that for the next few bits, you'd have to understand where Grace is coming from. Quite literally, actually.**

**Quote of the day: "In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain" –- Pliny the Elder**


	6. That's Up to Grace

**Chapter Five: **_**That's Up to Grace**_

"_EXTERMINATE!_"

The call sounded throughout the room, echoing dully off the concrete and metal walls. However, the beams of light never reached the man in the brown pinstripe suit, as they instead hit an invisible bubble, seemingly soaking into it.

The Doctor's ashen formed a frown as he looked out upon the Dalek fleet. "You didn't seriously think I'd just walk out here without a force field or something, did you? After all these years, I've learnt my lesson– be prepared. And I don't mean like the Lion King. I mean, do you really expect me to cruise through time and space without some sort of defense? Yeah, I'm brilliant, but really. You lot, as intelligent as you are for escaping death- again- you are all pretty thick." He shoved his hands into his coat pockets and let his eyes wander over the fleet. His eyes caught sight of something blonde close to the floor, and he looked down into Rose's face as she squatted on the floor next to Grace. He noticeably reeled, stepping back and nearly right into the blue police box in pure shock. Rose numbly reminded herself it was the TARDIS.

"Rose?"

Rose just stared at him, clutching to Grace for dear life. The little girl squirmed out of her mother's arms and stood up, walking over to – and through– the invisible bubble. She looked up at the young man as he continued to stare at Rose, both unable to move; he didn't even notice Grace until she uncharacteristically cleared her throat to get his attention. The reverie broken, he looked down to see a girl with beautiful brown hair that was slipping from its restraints, her braids unkempt.

"Are you The Doctor?"

"Yes." He looked back at Rose for a moment before looking down at Grace once more. "Who are you?"

Grace smiled then, and her eyes, still damp from tears, lit up mischievously in delight. "Jade Grace Tyler," she replied.

"Tyler?" When he glanced back at Rose, she could see the wheels spinning in his head. The shock slowly evaporated from his features as he appeared to deflate. "You're Rose's daughter?" He frowned slightly.

_Oh_, Rose bemused. Her eyes widened when she realized what he was thinking, knowing– even before he said it– what he was about to say; he was going to assume she was married to Mickey or something. Unable to control her voice, she looked him dead in the eye and willed him to understand. _She's your daughter. She's yours._

"Mickey's?" His eyes were so sad, yet so empty.

"No!" Rose exclaimed. She found herself scrunching her nose up slightly. "Why does everyone always assume that?" she pondered out loud, more to herself than to the Doctor.

"Oh, not Mickey's."

"No," Grace cut in. "Technically, I'm not her daughter, either," she added. When Rose shot a desperate look in Grace's direction and began opening her mouth to protest, Grace continued, "Mum, seriously. Yeah, your DNA is in me, but you didn't actually give _birth_ to me or anything." She looked back at the Doctor, her eyes piercingly bright. His own practically bulged as he understood her situation.

"You're a test tube child." He said it as a fact, and not a question. Grace nodded. "So Rose is, biologically, your mother. You need a mother. Everyone needs a mother. Everything needs a mother, even if it's not a female. Well, it's supposed to be female. Well-"

"Doctor!" Grace interceded.

"You're rambling," Rose added, standing up and staring at the Doctor. Funny, she didn't remember him ever rambling…

"Oh, right. Sorry. Anyway." He reached into a pocket and grabbed a pair of specs, shoving them on his face. Kneeling down, he reached Grace's eyelevel and peered at her face and into her eyes. "So if Rose is your mother- and you're undoubtedly the luckiest child in the universe for that," he added, looking at Rose with an oddly forlorn expression she couldn't quite fathom, "who's the father? Or fathers? There can be more than one father, but only one mother. Wouldn't that be cool, having two fathers? My cousin had two fathers- well, one was his real father, and the other was his step-father, sort of…"

Grace stared at the Doctor as he talked, silently sizing him up. Suddenly, she broke eye contact with him and glanced over at Rose. "I'm guessing that's where I get that rambling thing from."

The Doctor stopped talking when he heard that and looked first at Grace, then at Rose. Before she could help it, Rose was laughing so hard she arched forward, bent over herself. Grace grinned, took a very confused Doctor's hand in hers, and pulled him over to Rose with her. It was a short distance, only a few feet away, but as soon as Grace reached Rose, she was swept up into a mighty hug, her feet dangling slightly in the air as Rose held her close. "It would make sense, wouldn't it?"

"Rose." The Doctor's voice was hushed as he watched the mother and daughter hug and laugh together. Rose turned around to look him in the eye, signaling he should ask what he was going to ask. "Is she mine?"

Rose felt a blush creep into her cheeks, but she kept eye contact with him regardless. "I don't know." Her stomach was dancing, and she felt like throwing up, yet somehow she managed to keep it all down. "Yes," she added after a moment's pause. "Yeah, I s'pose she is."

Silence passed between them, but then a gigantic, goofy grin broke onto the Doctor's face as Rose felt something wet hit her cheek; she was crying once again, but this time of happiness. "Can I hold her?" The Doctor asked softly, tears gleaming in his eyes.

Rose put Grace down and looked her in the eye. "That's up to Grace."

The little girl turned around, facing the man in brown. Wordlessly, she reached out and put her arms around the Doctor's middle. He stood there, still as a stone for a moment; then, he seemed to get a hold of himself and crouched down so he could hug his daughter. Her arms tightened around his neck and Rose watched as he held Grace close to him, stood up, and spun her around in a circle, his smile so large she thought it would split his face. After what seemed like an eternity, he put Grace down and looked up to see Rose staring at them, tears flowing freely down her face.

Instinctively, Grace stepped towards her mother, but didn't reach out to her. Instead, she stopped and looked at the Doctor; he knew what to do, what he wanted to do. In one step he was in front of her, cupping her face with both his hands, wiping away her tears. All he wanted was to kiss her, but first he wrapped his arms around her and drew her as tightly to him as he could get.

"Rose," he whispered into her ear. "I-"

"_You will obey!_" The Daleks had surrounded them, and the Doctor realized, for the first time since he had seen Rose, that they were no longer in the TARDIS's force field. Quite obviously, the Daleks had caught on to that, too. "_The human women must remain alive. You will be exTERM-_"

Cut off mid-word, the Dalek sat there for a moment, silent and unmoving. Rose knew already where Grace was, that she was touching the Dalek; but the Doctor didn't. "Grace!" he called, his face the battleground of all extreme emotions. "What are you doing?"

She didn't even look at him. "They listen to me," she stated calmly. Her hand was pressed firmly against the Dalek's cold frame.

The Doctor looked at the Dalek and frowned. His eyes still gleamed with confusion and fear. "I can see that. But _why_ do they listen to you? You're not like Reinette- these aren't clock people that want your brain. These are Daleks- who won't just die!" Exasperation struck these last few words as he muttered them sourly.

"No, they aren't." She lifted her hand off the Dalek and after a moment it came back to life. It glided backward, then moved its eyepiece to look at Grace, almost as if it expected orders. "But they're a part of me, and I'm a part of them."

**Sorry for the wait! I know I had said I would get it up on Monday or Tuesday, but time slipped away from me. I had 2 birthdays to celebrate (my sister's and my best friend's), Father's Day, a friend of mine went back to Japan, I started work, and I had VBS every morning from 8 to 12. I hadn't expected to be as busy as I was, but my time was completely zapped, I suppose. This chapter's a bit longer than all the rest, though, so I hope that helps make up for the extra few days. **

**Next week I've got training for my job (officially), from 7 to 4 every day. I expect I'll be pretty drained each day when I get home, since I'll be learning how to use all the computer programs and whatnot for the bank. I don't know when I'll have the time or energy to update, but I'll make sure it's sometime next week- I won't let there be over an entire week without an update. **

**I hope you all enjoy the chapter and have a fantastic week. Remember: comments are love, and they motivate me to work a lot faster and harder translation: faster updates. **

**Quote of the day: "Death is only going to happen to you once; I don't want to miss it."-- Jim Morrison**


	7. Walls of Blood

**Chapter 6: **_**Walls of Blood**_

The darkness was suffocating as Mickey sat against the cold, assumedly concrete wall, pondering his options carefully. There was some strange dripping sound a few feet away- water, maybe? Maybe not. Why would Daleks have water, much less a leak?

Maybe it was some other fluid, one that needed to drip throughout the ship to keep it going; maybe it was poison, so that when he desperately drank it for liquid, he would be poisoned rather than die of thirst; perhaps it was acid, its dripping a calling for him to touch it; perhaps it was another life form- an alien, perhaps, kept hostage as he was. Then again, maybe it was water.

_Well, only one way to find out_, he thought soberly. Gathering all the courage he could muster, he scooted himself over to the source of the sound, and put his hand on the ground a few feet in front of him. His hand groped for something, anything; within seconds, he felt a warm wetness, a bit thicker than water or acid, but still quite delicate.

_The Doctor would have just tasted it_, he laughed to himself, a bizarre awkwardness passing through him. It wasn't any coherent thought, just an impulse: he put his fingers to his lips and his tongue darted out to taste the quickly cooling liquid. It tasted… like blood.

Human blood. Like the blood he used to taste in his mouth when he sucked on a scrape when he was little, or the blood that had built up in his mouth when he was punched, so many years ago. It wasn't the same, but it certainly tasted of blood, and that very thought caused all the contents of his stomach to rise up in rebellion. Coughing, he rid his body of any food, and winced at the vile, scratchy texture of his throat.

------------------------

"_The prisoners will follow._"

Ignoring the rapid flow of questions spitting from the Doctor's mouth and avoiding Rose's pained eyes, Grace followed the Dalek in silence, her parents in tow. They had left the large dome and were being escorted through a new set of halls- or, tunnels, more dungeon-like than most stone-and-plaster hallways in the human world; every so often they passed a large crack, which Rose silently supposed were doors. Concrete- or, at least, something very similar to concrete- surrounded them all in a narrow strip, void of any sort of decoration or sign, although once they passed some weird red fluid dripping from the ceiling above to beneath their feet.

She nudged the Doctor when she spotted it, and signaled it. A frown made itself evident in his eyes as well as his face, and his questions grew more rapid. Squeezing her hand in his as they clasped, he turned his face once more to Grace, who remained impassive and resistant to his inquiries.

"Grace, answer me, please. That fluid, it's blood, isn't it? Who's blood? What is it doing, dripping down the walls? It's their lifeline, isn't it? I'll bet they've got something cooped up somewhere, living only to keep them alive. I can't imagine what could do that for _them_, though. I know other ships have done it, but it never lasts long. They need a new supply every 5 years or so, and it has to be by the same source. But I still want to know why you say you can control them. You can't be a part of them, or them of you, anyway! They would kill themselves. I've seen it happen. They made themselves half-human, and-"

"_DALEKS WOULD NOT BECOME HUMAN. HUMANS ARE INFERIOR. WE WOULD NOT TAINT OURSELVES WITH YOUR SPECIES._"

"Oh! Struck a cord, have I?" The Doctor grinned maniacally at their captors and he gave Rose's hand another quick squeeze to assure her he had things covered. "Well, it's true. I thought you were all sucked into the void, but I missed a few of you, and you know what you did? Your leader became half-human, and then he tried to make the world half-Dalek! And you know what else? The Daleks lost- again! You always survive everything, but you never win anything, do you?"

"_YOU WILL NOT TARNISH THE DALEK RACE! YOU WILL NOT MOCK THE DALEKS OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!_"

"Who's mocking? You brought it upon yourselves! You-"

"Doctor!" Rose hissed, her teeth gritted and her eyes wide. He looked down to note the source of pain in his hand, and saw hers clutching his tighter than he knew was possible. He was about to complain- loudly- and mentions something about being rude and not ginger, when he noticed how terrified she looked. "Look at Grace," she whispered, and tore her gaze from his to stare at their daughter.

Grace was standing stock still, her eyes clouded in a white fog, the color drained from her face. She stared straight at a crack in the wall, larger than any other they had seen yet, which was emitting a faint cracking sound as it slowly tore open to reveal a room as black as the one Rose and Grace had initially woken in. Oblivious to the eyes (and eyepieces) on her, Grace stepped forward into the vast abyss, blacker than the coat of a penguin or the very depths of the sea, and the Daleks followed, a slight whirring noise present as they glided in. Rose took a step to follow her, but a sharp tug on her hand caused her to stop suddenly and glance back to shoot a confused gaze at the Doctor.

"Don't follow her. Not yet." Rose's eyes widened for a split second, then narrowed dangerously.

"She's my daughter, and I'm not letting anything happen to her." She tried to disentangle herself from the Doctor, but he held firm.

"No. Don't follow her in. Whatever's possessed her will keep her safe, at least for a little while. But if you follow her in, or if I do, who knows what will happen? They could scramble your brain, or fry your body; they could kill you in an instant."

"I don't care. They could take my daughter. Let go of me!"

"No." Shocked by the gruffness of his voice, Rose turned around.

"Excuse me?"

"No," he repeated, stepping closer to her. "I'm not losing you again. Even if you're not fully you, I'm not chancing losing you again."

Stupefied, Rose murmured, "Not fully me?"

Grief filled his eyes as he stared sadly at her. "You're not the same Rose you were. You don't remember me, not really. I can tell by the way you look at me, like you're not sure who I am or if I'm real or not." He looked down at their entwined hands. "You're still wonderful and loyal and beautiful as ever, though. If I weren't here, I might even call you brilliant." He grinned slightly, chancing the faintest glance at Rose, almost amused. "And you're still my Rose."

"_Your_ Rose?" she replied, and when the Doctor looked up he saw a glimmer of a smirk on her features and in her eyes. "I'll have you know I belong to me, and only me." Her face darkened once more, a shadow casting over her eyes and her face hardening grimly. "But they have my daughter, and I can't let her go alone. Even if that means I have to die for her."

Mixed emotions coursed through the Doctor- excitement, horror, anticipation, curiosity, lust- and suddenly a huge grin cracked his face. "Well, then. If you're set on this- just like the old Rose, I might add- we're in this together. She's my daughter, too, and whether you like to admit it, you're my Rose."

A similar grin echoed on Rose's face, and after a few seconds, she turned back to the hole and stepped in, pulling the Doctor in beside her as a brilliant, iridescent light suddenly engulfed them.

--------------------------------------------

_I have to get out of here. There has to be a way out._ Mickey frantically searched the walls with his hands, the foul aftertaste of vomit thick in his mouth. His callused fingertips brushed the rough concrete, feeling, desperately, for any crack or split. Occasionally, they hit a wet patch- blood, undoubtedly- and he felt his stomach churn, attempting to spit out whatever else hadn't been purged previously.

After a few minutes, he felt an oddly smooth cut in the wall that led from the floor all the way up about 5 feet or so. Adrenaline filled him as he felt all the way around to find a slightly rounded crack, all attached and in the shape of a domed door. His efforts on prying it apart came up short, though. Minutes later, he lost hope and banged his fist on the wall, splitting it between the knuckles. Whimpering, he turned and slid against the wall to the floor, cradling his harmed hand in the other, his head hitting the wall behind him softly.

_Rose. She's out there, and Grace, and here I am, crying over a cut. I'm weak, pointless, an "idiot". So much for being the tin dog- at least then I had a purpose._ In frustration, he unclenched his hands and slammed them, palm out, against the wall behind him. The pain that fired up through his arm from his hand hardly registered, as he felt himself sinking back, slowly.

The wall was moving backward, and a faint light was surrounding the edges of the "door," growing brighter by the second. The wall was opening, and he was getting out of his prison.

**My God, I am so, so sorry this is so late. I realize I said I'd update at least once a week, and I truly believed I would, but life got in the way. Training took more out of me than I had anticipated, and I returned home each night tired, and less than eager to come on the computer. Instead, I opted to go to the lake or a friend's house, away from technology, other than cars. I thought about this story more than once, but I couldn't pull myself to my computer and sit for a good half an hour at a time to write it. I really apologize for the delay, and I hope it doesn't happen again, but now I refuse to make any more guarantees as to when I'll update. I'll update when I have the time, and I maintain that it's my goal to update once a week, although I can't make promises. I'll try to stick to it, but we'll just have to wait and see.**

**I really hope you all think this update was worth the wait. It seems like nothing was revealed, but in the scheme of things, there was actually quite a bit revealed. At least, I think so. If I continue with the plot I have in mind, this will be quite a bit of necessary info- and a bit of fluff. **

**Usually, I read over my updates before I post them, but I figured it's been so long since I've updated that I would just give you all what I've got. If you see any glaring errors, please tell me so I can change them. That would be fantastic. :) **

**I want to thank you all for reading, and especially those who comment. Each comment has motivated me to keep going (and they're the main reason I'm still writing at all). I truly appreciate it, and I want to thank you all, very much. My ego thanks you, too. Hopefully one day my story writing style will improve. :P (I very much prefer my writing style for essays, as I'm more used to that, and I have a rather complicated style of satire and seriousness, but I'm not used to writing stories yet, which is why my style is rather… childish, would you say?)**

**Quote of the day: "The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television." -- Unknown**


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